Alcoholism has many definitions that vary from social frameworks to a psychiatric framework embedded in the diagnosis of Substance Dependence on Alcohol defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association, 4th edition (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association 1994). Alcoholism, and more generically drug addiction, can be defined as a chronically relapsing disorder characterized by (i) compulsion to seek and take the drug (alcohol), (ii) loss of control in limiting (alcohol) intake, and (iii) emergence of a negative emotional state (e.g., dysphoria, anxiety and irritability) reflecting a motivational withdrawal syndrome when access to the drug (alcohol) is prevented (defined here as dependence: Koob and Le Moal 1997). Clinically and in animal models, the occasional but limited use of alcohol with the potential for abuse or dependence is distinct from escalated alcohol intake and the emergence of a chronic alcohol-dependent state. The thesis argued in the present synthesis is that alcoholism, similar to drug addiction, is a reward deficit disorder, and the “emergence of a negative emotional state” plays an important role in defining and perpetuating alcoholism. Alcoholism also
